The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-01-27

CuIAott bliC SOidI oy ouCul LUZ SuTiSts
worlds ablaze and worlds burned out-all
worlds for Christ.
Intensest microscope can not see the one
side of that domain. Further reaching tel
escope can not find the other side of that
domain. But will tell you how the uni
verse is bounded. 1t is bounded on the
north and south and east and west by
God, and that God is Christ, and that Christ
is God, and that God is ours. o, does it
not enlarge our ideas of Saviour's domin-
ion when l tell you that all the worlds are
only sparks struck from His anvil, that all
the worlds are only fieecy 1ocks following
the one Shepherd, that all the islands of
light in immensely are one great archipela-
go belonging to our King?
But this scene also impresses me witt
the fact that the wise men of the East came
to Christ, They were not fools; they were
not imbeciles. The record distinctly SAYS
that the wise men came to Christ We say
they were the magi, or they were the al
chemists, UT they were the PSYCHOLOGISTS,
and we say it with depreciating accentua-
ton. Why, they were the most splendid
and magnificent men of the century; they
were the naturalists and the scientists; they
knew all that was known. You must re-
member that astrology was the mother of
astronomy, and that alchemy was the
mother of chemistry, and because children
are brighter than the mother, you do not
despise the mother.
1t was the lifelong business of these as
biologists to study the stars. Twenty-Five
hundred and fifty years before Christ was
born the wise men knew the procession of
the equinoxes, and they had calculated the
orbit and return of the comets. Prof
Smith declares that he thinks they knew
the distance of the earth from the SUM- We
find in the book of Job that the men of
olden time did not suppose the world was
fiat, as some have said, but he knew, and
the men of his time knew, the world was
globular. The Pyramids were built for
astrological and astronomical study.
Then the alchemlsts spent their lives in
the study OF metals, and gases, and liquids,
and solids, and in filling the worlds libra
ries with their discoveries. They were
vastly wise men who came to the East.
They understood embalment as our most
scientific men can not understand it. After
the world has gone on studying hun
dreds OF years may come up to that point
where the ancients began to forget. l be-
ieve the lost arts are as mighty as the liv-
ing arts.
AhOy WCiC WISH ulcu UIldU CdLl6 lTOul Llc
East, and tradition says the three wisest
came-Casper, young man; Balthazar, a
man in mid-life, and Melchior, an octo-
genarian; the three wisest men of all the
century. They came to the manager. Who
was the greatest metaphysician this coun-
try has ever produceds Johnathan Ed
wards, the Christian. Who was the
greatest astronomer of the worldl Her
schel, the Christian. Who was the greatest
poet ever produceda John Milton, the
Christian. Who was the wisest writer on
lava Blackstone, the Christian. Why is
it that every college and university in the
land has chapel! They must have a place
for the wise men to worship
Come, now, let US understand in ounces
and by inches this whole matter In post
mortem examination the brains of distin-
guished men have been examined, and
Will find the largest, the heaviest, the
mlghtiest brain ever produced in America,
and will ask what that brain thought of
Christ. There it is, the brain weighing
sixty-three ounces, the largest brain ever
produced in America. Now, let me find
what that brain thought of Christ In the
dying moment, that man said: Lord,
Delleve; help Thou mine unbelief. What
ever else do, Almighty God, receive me
to Thyself for Christ's sake. This night
shall be in life, and joy, and blessedness"
So Daniel Webster came to the manager.
The Wise men Of the East followed by the
wise men of the West
Know also in this scene that it was a
winter month that God chose for His sons
nativity. Had it been the month of May
that IS the season of blossoms. Had it been
the month of June-that is the month of
roses Had it been in the month of July
that is month of great harvests Had it
been in the month of September-that is the
season of ripe orchards. Had it been in the
month of October-that is the season of up-
holstered forests. But He was born in the
month of December, when there are no
flowers blooming out of doors, and when
all the harvests that have not been gath.
cred up have perished and when there are
no fruits ripening on the hill, and when the
leaves are drifted over the bare earth.
Dit was in closing Decent Der that He was
born, to show this is a Christ for people in
sharp blast, for people under clouded sky.
Tor people with frosted hopes, for people
with thermometer below zero, for people
showed under. A December Christ! That
is the reason He is so often found among
the destitute. You can find Him on any
night coming off the moors-you can see
HIM any night coming through the dark
lanes of the city-you can see Him putting
His hand under the fainting head in the
pauper's cabin. He remembers how the
wind whistled around the caravansary in
Bethlehem that December night, and He is
in sympathy with all those who in their
poverty hear the shutters clatter on cold
night.
1t was this December Christ that Wash
lngton and his army worshiped at Valley
Forge, when, without blankets, they lay
down in the December snow It was this
Christ that the Pilgrim Fathers appealed
to when the Mayfower wharfed at Ply
mouth Rock, and in the years that went by
the graves digged were more IN number
than the houses built. Oh, I tell you, we
want December Christ, not a Christ for
fair weather, but Christ for dark days
clouded with sickness, and chilling with
disappointment, and suffocating with be-
reavement, and terrific with wide open
graves. Not spring-tim Christ, not a
summer Christ, not an autumn Christ, but
a winter Christ.
Oh, this suffering and struggling world
needs to be hushed and soothed and rocked
luliabied in the arms of sympathetic Om-
impotence! No mother ever with more
tenderness put her foot on the rocker of
n hfld fhn.x